Test Drive: Nostalgia aside, me wanna Miata

Feb. 6, 2013
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2013 MX-5 Miata. / Mazda

by James R. Healey, USA TODAY

by James R. Healey, USA TODAY

Mazda soon will discontinue the frisky MX-5 Miata sports car as we know it, and replace the agile scamp with a sports car Mazda is developing jointly with Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand.

That one's about two years off, and the resulting car is likely to continue using the MX-5 Miata name. But no significant changes are planned in the meantime - mainly trim packages such as the Club version new for 2013.

Good time to jump in the Club - evil black alloy wheels, fender badges and interior trim, but no powertrain or chassis modifications - and revisit the final version of a car that was a full-fledged phenomenon when it hit the market in mid-1989 as a 1990 model after making its public debut at the 1989 Chicago Auto Show.

Owners of those first Miatas can tell stories of being chased into parking lots and alleys by people so smitten that they absolutely had to know, "What is that!?" And the inevitable, "Where'd you get it? How much did it cost?"

Base price back then was $13,800.

What's hard to remember, unless you see that first-generation car sitting next to today's third-gen (launched in 2005), is how tiny it was. The new car is still small, but it looks gigantic cheek-by-jowl with the old one. Only a couple of inches longer, wider, but quite a difference.

The old one weighed about 2,100 pounds. The new one, about 2,500 lbs. Before you tsk-tsk, who among us hasn't hefted-up with age?

Then it burned regular and literally balked at premium. Now, premium's recommended. Then and now: about as much driving fun for the dollar as you can have.

Club, a midlevel model, lacks every convenience you might take for granted now. No backup camera, navigation system, Bluetooth (available only in a $1,390 options package on the top model), push-button/key-free door handles or ignition, heated seats - none of those. There's nothing new about the car being feature-challenged, though. Power steering and air conditioning weren't standard on those first Miatas.

The important attribute remains solidly in place. The 2013 still has a raw-boned directness reminiscent of the original. You ask, car answers.

Even though the test car was fitted with optional retractable hardtop (up or down in a mere 12 seconds; takes away no room in the trunk), rather than the standard cloth-convertible top, it still was noisy. Some of that was good - the sounds of honest car things taking place. Some was just tiring (sign of an aging driver?).

Back then, we took many road trips in a Miata. Now, we'd have to think about that.

These days, the spiritual successors to Miata are the near-twin Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S. Their tops won't go up and down, but they have the same passion-inspiring, direct, responsive appeal. Their fixed hardtops make them quieter than Miata, and their tiny back seats make them roomier (though the back is more for stuff than people).

Some of the 2013 Miata's "pure" sound actually is artificially voiced.

The original 1990 had its intake manifold near the firewall that divides people space from engine space. That's pretty close to the driver, so nail the gas pedal and hear the engine gulp in as much air as possible through that intake.

Today's model gets its engine air from way up front, beneath the bumper. Far from the driver's ear. Mazda, nothing if not clever, runs a pipe from the intake low in front to back near the firewall, piping engine sound near enough that the driver can hear at least some of the same hard-breathing sound of the original.

The 2013 Miata test car still has a manual shift that feels stiff, precise, gratifying to move among its six forward gears, as the 1990s did among its five speeds. That first generation had a carefully tailored gearshift feel. The chief engineer tried to match the tactile sensations of a somewhat worn Jaguar XK-E gearbox and some other, now long-forgotten benchmark. He also confided that he had the speedometer set about 5 mph fast, to enhance the illusion of speed.

Too much artifice in what was meant to be a pure roadster, like the British MG and Triumph sports cars that left the U.S. by the early 1980s.

But forgivable, because it made the car a royal hoot to drive.

The 2013 test car had a clutch that suffered a fool's foot not at all, lurching if engaged too quickly or with too little push on the gas pedal. Quickly learned, though, then well-appreciated as a feeling of control.

Seats are unusually comfortable, though the tight-fitting cockpit might eventually make you think otherwise.

Instruments are the good kind - that is, straightforward gauges with pointers. Tachometer and speedometer are big, round ones; other instruments are smaller. All as it should be.

After two decades, the Miata remains at least philosophically true to the original. Driving it gives you very pleasant, car-lover sensations (if not quite the goose bumps of the original, when it was so newly exciting).

Regardless, the current Gen 3 car is the last of the purebred Miatas, solely Mazda designs and executions. Hard to argue if you decide in the next 18 to 24 months to spring for the last of an honorable breed.